The Most Infuriating 10 Minutes of Your Life

Jon Stewart recently had HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on his show to defend the debacle that is Obamacare. Little did he know he would be providing content for the most infuriating 10 minutes of your life.

First, Sebelius fumbles as she tries her best to defend the glitches in the program launch in which thousands of users were denied access to the websites. Then, she absolutely bombs when Stewart asks her a reasonable question: why are big corporations getting exemptions when everyday Americans aren’t? Steward had an answer that Sebelius couldn’t admit: it’s because big corporations have lobbyists; everyday Americans do not.

Stewart gets close to the real answer to all of this when he questions the mandate: why should individuals be forced to do something they don’t want?

Sebelius’s answer is that everyone must get health insurance (except for big corporations with lobbyists) because we don’t know when we’ll get sick, so you must pay for insurance regardless of whether you have high risk.

The problem with that mentality is that it artificially increases the demand for insurance, which inflates the cost of the product and inevitably creates a bubble, similar to the housing bubble in the 2000s. What’s more is that the government is forcing people to get insurance that they don’t need. Does everyone need coverage for Alcoholism/Substance Abuse coverage, Asthma Education coverage, Blood Lead Poisoning Screening, Bone Mass Measurement, Contraceptives, HPV Screening (for sexually active women with more than one partner), Diabetic Supplies, Drug Abuse Treatment in one of Texas drug rehab facilities or Heroin addiction pompano rehab centers, In Vitro Fertilization, “Other Infertility Service,” Special Footwear, and Telemedicine? Should a celebate person have to buy insurance coverage for “gay infertility“? No. But that’s what happens when government gets involved with health care. And it makes it unaffordable. That’s why we had so many uninsured in the first place; they were priced out of the market by mandates.

Here’s Sebelius trying hopelessly to defend this bizarre ideology:

The most infuriating part of the Stewart/Sebelius interview, however, is when Stewart suggests we should just move completely to a single-payer government health care system. He thinks the lobbyists are too powerful now but fails to see that taking individual discretion completely out of the picture will just make the situation worse. He even hints that the government can’t manage the VA health system so how can he trust that complete socialized medicine would work?

Stewart says that health care cannot be a market-based solution for some reason, but the free market is the best system to maximize innovation and reduce costs.

If you want an example, look at cosmetic surgery, which is not covered by insurance. Cosmetic surgery prices have gone down compared to inflation, while, insurance-based chemotherapy, a ’70s technology, has skyrocketed in price.

The free market may not cover everyone (that’s what charities are for), but it is the best way to ensure the majority of people get what they need. Obamacare’s mandates are leading us in the wrong direction.

The most bizarre section of this interview is when Sebelius is evidently trying to assure Stewart of the push toward complete socialized medicine in America. She says, “As you know, we’re facing the end of the Western Civilization by having a market-based strategy. We are bringing Western Civilization to its knees by selling private insurance plans on a website where people can pick and choose.” I have no idea what she’s talking about here, but it sounds like they’re trying to ruin the economy to make way for their idea of a good health care system.